Français  Contact Us  Help  Search  Canada Site Volume 1 (1000–1754) Volume 2 (1755-1871) Volume 3 (1872–2000) CHAPTER 1 The Conquest CHAPTER 2 The Revolt of Pontiac and the American Invasion CHAPTER 3 The Coveted Pacific Coast CHAPTER 4 The Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 CHAPTER 5 Demobilization A Time For Defence Cuts The American Threat The Great Fortifications Huge Expenses! The Great Lakes - Neutral Territory Annual Review of the Upper Canadian Militia The Militia of Lower Canada Demobilization of the French-Canadian Militia Political Confrontation and Secret Societies The 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion Saint-Denis and Saint-Charles Saint-Eustache The Horrors of War The Upper Canada Rebellion New Preparations Start of the 1838 Rebellions Napierville The Invasion of Upper Canada The Legacy of the Rebellions The Aroostook War Canadian Politics and British Withdrawal Reorganization of the Militia The 1855 Volunteers In the Maritimes CHAPTER 6 The Royal Navy, Ruler of the Seas CHAPTER 7 A Decade of Turbulence APPENDIX A The British Armed Forces APPENDIX B Daily Life of Soldiers and Officers APPENDIX C Uniforms and Arms APPENDIX D Reference      CHAPTER 5 Demobilization           The Upper Canada Rebellion ( 2 pages )           1 2      Cross-border Incidents                Wreck of the steamboat Caroline near Niagara Falls, 29 December 1837. (Click image to enlarge) The militias of the Niagara Peninsula also mobilized, for Mackenzie and his supporters, with the assistance of American sympathizers, set up the provisional government of the Republic of Upper Canada on the small Navy Island on the Canadian side of the Niagara River approximately four kilometres upstream from the famous falls.  The Caroline, a small American steamboat acquired by the Patriots, served as their supply vessel.  On the evening of December 29 some 50 Canadian volunteers led by Captain Andrew Drew of the Royal Navy boarded the ship and took it in a few minutes on the American side of the border.  Only one American supporter of Mackenzie was killed.  The ship was torched and set adrift.  The Caroline in flames as it approached the great falls must have been an unforgettable sight for inhabitants on both sides that evening.  However, it did not plunge into the abyss, as several newspapers would claim, but crashed into a small island at the top of the falls and disintegrated. Following this manifest violation of United States territory, the American diplomatic response was equally spectacular, and the ambassadors in Washington and London exchanged a few acerbic missives.  The Americans, however, did have to admit that a number of their citizens had fomented the invasion of Upper Canada.  President Martin Van Buren condemned their actions and ordered the regular troops of General Winfield Scott to patrol the American side of the border along the Niagara River.  On January 13, 1838, realizing that they would be unable to invade Upper Canada, Mackenzie's men evacuated Navy Island.  On January 9, to the west of the colony other Patriots who had left from Detroit shelled Amherstburg, but their ship drifted away before being boarded by Canadian militiamen.  Thus ended the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, a spirited but much less bloody rebellion than the one in Lower Canada.           1 2   Last Updated: 2004-06-20 Important Notices